A Letter From The Publisher, Sep. 9, 1974

The problems besetting the U.S. economy these days are global in
scopeand so, necessarily, was the reporting for this week's cover
story. In response to detailed queries prepared by Business section
Senior Editor George Church, who wrote the main story, staffers from
nearly all of TIME's 27 bureaus around the world fanned out to take the
measure of the general economic malaise. In addition, TIME's domestic
correspondents were asked to add a personal dimension to the story by
finding out how individual Americans are copingor not copingwith
inflation. The resulting vignettes, which accompany Church's piece,
amply illustrate the truth of President...